PGL Major Antwerp turns blue-yellow during day two

For the audience of the PGL Major Antwerp, it was a good thing that the Sportpaleis is covered. Unlike the atmosphere in the stadium, the weather in the Belgian port city was far from heartwarming. The CSGO spectators, who often travelled on foot, often came in rained out, but then dried off quickly while cheering and singing. The Vitality supporters in particular created a lot of atmosphere in the slowly filling up arena from the start.

Walk-over

Day two of the Champions stage of the CS:GO Major began with the battle between ENCE and Copenhagen Flames. The teams, ranked 3rd and 15th in the world respectively, were unfortunately less evenly matched than expected. The Flames did get the audience on its feet a couple of times with some excellent rounds, but in the end it was ENCE that took a convincing 2-0 victory and thus the second semi-final place. The Finnish organisation even managed to get rid of their Danish opponents so quickly that it took almost an hour for the next two teams to show up.

Before a shot was fired, however, the second quarter-final of the day proved more than worth the wait. When Ukrainian team NaVi, featuring superstar S1mple, came on stage, the crowd really put their money where their mouth is today, cheering loudly and then welcoming opponent Heroic with deafening boos. However, not long after the game started, not all the crowd was in favour of NaVi. The good performance of their team caused a fanatical group of Heroic supporters to make themselves heard more and more. This, of course, met with a disapproving response from the NaVi supporters, which led to an entertaining back-and-forth between the two groups of supporters.

Leaders

The fact that the crowd was in favour of the opponent did not seem to bother the Heroic players. On the contrary, with every negative sound coming from the crowd, Heroic-IGL Cadian in particular seemed to be playing better. That he enjoyed his role as the bogeyman was clear from his challenging reactions after every good play, asking for more. This request was of course gladly granted by the fans, but with seemingly the opposite effect, as Cadian and co. managed to win the first map convincingly.

However, this did not stop the NaVi fans present from making themselves heard loud and often in game two. And this time they were rewarded by S1mple once again displaying his special qualities. He made the difference for his team with some improbable shots in an otherwise very even battle in which NaVi narrowly won, resulting in a 1-1 score.

High attendance

Heroic founder Joachim Haraldsen took a seat among the crowd for the decisive third game. A choice he probably soon regretted. The Dane's frustration is visible on his face as he watches his team go down without a chance on the decisive map. Something that visibly amuses a few nearby NaVi fans who recognise him and probably contributes to them, and all the other NaVi supporters present, leaving the Sportpaleis satisfied. On to the next day of excitement and action, after first taking a well-deserved rest in one of the busy hotels in Antwerp city centre.